Nashville Predators Most Overrated – #3 Jeremy Lauzon
The way this Nashville Predators roster looks I would have to say that Jeremy Lauzon is the most overrated as we head into 2023-24.
Signing a four year/$8 million, $2 million AAV, contract with the Predators on June 13, 2022, Lauzon was expected to increase his level of play with this organization. That just has not happened on a team that relies as heavily on its back end as the Nashville Predators.
Playing in 67 games during the 2022-23 season, Lauzon had three goals and nine assists, averaging just 0.17 points per game. He also managed to amass a total of 66 penalty minutes.
When you are defensemen that starts right at 70 percent of your shifts in the defensive zone, it is imperative that you stay out of the box in order to be on the ice when your team uses, and needs, you the most.
Looking at Lauzon’s Corsi, for every 60 minutes that he was on the ice the opposing team took 22.4 shots more than what the Predators were able to.
While Lauzon is more of a defensive zone defenseman, this number needs to come down in order to allow the Predators the opportunity to find the win column more often.
While Lauzon did have 250 hits last season, he also had just 75 blocked shots, three takeaways, and 23 giveaways. To his credit, he was good for ninth in the NHL in hits, while slightly cutting down on his total penalty minutes from the previous season.
Lauzon’s overall level of play needs to increase if he wants to finish out his current contract in a Predators sweater, and more importantly get a starting spot out of this upcoming training camp after the free agency addition of Luke Schenn, and Dante Fabbro also in the mix.